Entertainers presenting live music performance frequently do so in groups of musicians. In the group setting, each has an instrument which is played to generate a portion of the music. More often than not, such a group will have a drummer to provide the rhythm and beat which audiences expect in a live performance, especially if there is dancing.
Further, many musicians play their instruments while tapping or moving their feet to the rhythm simultaneously. Such body movements with the feet and legs are in fact common among musicians and non-musicians alike who tap their feet and move their legs in accompaniment and in concurrence with the music in which they are playing, or in which they are hearing. The present invention provides a means for allowing this accompaniment and time-keeping motion of people, for the purpose of music creation.
While the performance of live music, with it's expected beat and percussion is easily accomplished by a plurality of musicians where one is a drummer, for the solo musician without an accompanying drummer a quandary arises. While guitars, vocals, and other melodic instruments have a pleasant sound, and can be combined for performances, many individuals and smaller musical groups without drums are often precluded from performing in certain musical venues which require the pulse and beat of loud, present, rhythmic percussion for their audiences. The present invention solves this quandary by allowing a performer to accompany themselves on percussion, while playing a secondary instrument with the hands.
While some solo artists and small groups can employ a drum machine, or recorded drum tracks with amplified music which the group accompanies, there are a number of problems with this scenario. First, many audiences are simply turned off by the lack of a live drummer. This may be because a live audience generally will request certain songs be played and not necessarily in any real order. Consequently for the group or band using recorded drums, it is hard to anticipate and accommodate such out of order musical performances and to incorporate the recorded tracks from electronic memory correctly if at all.
Attempts at remedying the shortfalls of conventional art have been presented, for example electronic drum machines of the kind disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,479,412. Such devices conventionally playback stored samples or digital recordings of percussive sounds. However, employment of such devices is often impractical for use in live musical performance by a single performer, because they require the user to employ their hands for normal operation. Additionally, because such devices employ prerecorded drum recordings they do not allow the musician the flexibility to instantly adjust tempo, nor do they allow the performer to spontaneously alter rhythm signatures or musical song selection in mid-performance, should the desire arise. Further, a performer playing their instrument with their hands, cannot use their hands to attempt to simultaneously alter tempo or rhythm instructions or to alter recordings on a drum machine.
As such, there is an unmet need for a musical device which allows a musician playing a hand manipulated instrument, to include a percussion instrument sound with their live music. Such an instrument or device, when employed, should not only produce percussion sounds to the live music being played, it should also allow for an instant tempo adjustment, or a spontaneous alteration of rhythm signatures and/or musical song selection in mid-performance, should the desire or need arise. Finally, such an instrument should provide the cure to these noted shortfalls of conventional art in a manner which does not require the artist to remove or reposition their hands from the instrument they are already playing.
The forgoing examples of related art and limitation related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various limitations of the related art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.